Wednesday, February 12, 2020

About
50 people this evening showed up at the Koffee Kat to interact with
Democratic candidate for the House of Representatives Tedra Cobb, New
York Congressional District 21. She as been traveling throughout the
congressional district -- all 1700 square miles -- to hear from
voters and share her views, trying to meet as many people as she can.
She explained: "It's not about me, it's about you."

She is
running against pro-Trump Republican Elise Stefanik. Tedra point out
that in the beginning Elise promoted herself as a moderate but now
the incumbent has proven she's not one for moderation. President
Donald Trump's policies are usually Elise's policies such as her vote
vote against the Affordable Care Act (ACA.)

Tedra
questioned how much attention Elise was spending on her constituents
in the her district. Elise is now serving Trump as one of his NYS
honorary re-election campaign chairs. Time spent campaigning for
Trump meant less time to work for NY-21.

One
issue discussed was health care. Tedra said she preferred a public
option over a universal health care plan. One attendee said that ACA
wasn't benefiting her because she was a "smidgen" over the
eligibility limit.

Tedra
stressed that when she served on the St. Lawrence County Legislature
Democrats and Republicans worked together. If elected she will try
to bring more unity between those parties in the House of
Representatives.

She
said if voters send the same politicians back to Washington, DC they
will get the same results.

Thursday, February 06, 2020

One
night a taxi driver was sitting in his vehicle, waiting for his next
call when something hit his roof. Silence. Then something else hit
his roof. Again and again.

Nocturnal
squirrels dropping nuts on his vehicle? No. It was a mob of crows
perched in the tree above him, carpet-bombing with their crap as
usual.

Last winter I
reported on the problem, long stretches of sidewalks covered with the
disgusting droppings. It was as bad as the chronic dogshit problem.

But
like with dogshit Plattsburgh City has failed to address crows
defecating on downtown. Of course the city has passed bans on
fracking, plastic straws, and public smoking in wide open areas which
all take precedence over animal scat.

Auburn,
NY has earned the unenviable sobriquet Crow City. Crows have plagued
the city for years but at least it takes action. In the evening
exploding firecrackers drive away the pests.

There
are options to deal with the crow problem. Just Google the keywords
"crow deterrent" and a plethora of answers will pop up on
the screen.

Maybe
the city will cry "No money." Well there are some free
options available, The video below can be downloaded, using hawk calls
to drive off the black vexations.

Or
how about a crow in distress recording? When a raucous gathering
disturbed my sleep early in the morning I played the recording linked
below with a boombox in an open window. Good riddance. No mobs have
returned, just one solitary crow, so this seems to work.